Becoming a CTA, CPO, or manage futures

For me, I am looking at the big picture. It is difficult in the startup phase, but if you have enough belief in your "strategy", you will make it. [/B][/QUOTE]

Starting up is very difficult indeed. There are a number of 'Hedge Fund Hotels' in London (& I'm sure there must be the same in the US) where you go in with a small amount of capital, they provide all of the infrastructure, systems, back-office accounting etc ..to allow you just to trade and get the track record going. In return they get a piece of you moving forward. They regulate you under their umbrella and then help set up the fund etc...
Its not a bad situation and can be of great benefit to keep down your costs and get a regulated partner who will market you!!
check out Schneider Trading in London

http://www.schneidercapital.com/

peace & profit
 
fitrol,
I just finished reading your profile in Futures mag. Congrats on making the cut. I was entertaining the idea of submitting next year, but after a destructive September, I'm climbing back up the mountain before submitting any performance numbers.
I've just experienced my largest drawdown in 3+ years in the last 30 days...frustrating to say the least after being close to +20% for the year. Looks like you had a similar experience a few years ago but rebounded well. Way to stay with the strat and adjust the money management side. Once again, money management outweighs everything else in this game.
 
Quote from jgfutures:

fitrol,
I just finished reading your profile in Futures mag. Congrats on making the cut. I was entertaining the idea of submitting next year, but after a destructive September, I'm climbing back up the mountain before submitting any performance numbers.
I've just experienced my largest drawdown in 3+ years in the last 30 days...frustrating to say the least after being close to +20% for the year. Looks like you had a similar experience a few years ago but rebounded well. Way to stay with the strat and adjust the money management side. Once again, money management outweighs everything else in this game.
More...

Yes, money management is key!!! You gotta keep the faith and follow blindly at times.

If you don't mind me asking what happened in Sep that was so bad for your system?
I was a little more volatile than usual but came out +2.72% on the month...that being said i took the last week off to refurb my office and the model would have given back around 1% in that time.
Managed Futures Index was just +ve (+0.23%) after being
-ve for most of the month.





Peace & Profit
 
fitrol,
Front half of September was business as usual. My excessive drawdown was captured in the back half of Sep and early Oct, counting today.

My system trades the minis (including dow). Never before has the system executed on all four instruments in the same direction on the same day. This happened twice in the past 3 weeks, and 7 of 8 were losers. The result is my worst drawdown since system inception. I've been anticipating a drawdown in excess of 3x my historical, but this current drawdown is app 4x historical drawdown. Ouch.

I do not fault, however, the system. This has simply allowed me to observe a few changes that MAY take place in money management. I'm not saying the system is perfect, but it currently achieves what it was design to do: capture momentum. Unfortunately, it was wrong about the direction 7 out of 8 times on a system that trades 50x a year. Ouch, again.
 
Quote from jgfutures:

fitrol,
Front half of September was business as usual. My excessive drawdown was captured in the back half of Sep and early Oct, counting today.

My system trades the minis (including dow). Never before has the system executed on all four instruments in the same direction on the same day. This happened twice in the past 3 weeks, and 7 of 8 were losers. The result is my worst drawdown since system inception. I've been anticipating a drawdown in excess of 3x my historical, but this current drawdown is app 4x historical drawdown. Ouch.

I do not fault, however, the system. This has simply allowed me to observe a few changes that MAY take place in money management. I'm not saying the system is perfect, but it currently achieves what it was design to do: capture momentum. Unfortunately, it was wrong about the direction 7 out of 8 times on a system that trades 50x a year. Ouch, again.
More...

The same thing happened to me last July....all same direction all whipped/reversed without taking a profit...4 times...risk per full load was around the 4% level hence -17.9%....

I don't know your system at all, but don't you think all US contracts are a little too similar in their movements, hence the drawdown....I mean to say that I was astounded when it happened to me across 5 different stock indexes but I could see it happening more on just the US stuff....just a thought not a criticism!

When I changed my money management, I kept full faith in the system just de-leveraged a little to compensate.....for me it was an extremely rare event & I'm sure you will find it to be the same.
Important thing is not to get gun shy and keep on taking the signals, all be it possibly at reduced risk!!

Peace & Profit
 
I used to use these guys www.Futuresaccounting.com
They are cheap but not very reliable.
When I started doing my offshore fund I looked at Arthur Bell, very well known/reliable and very expensive.
Currently for my Managed accounts I use NAV Consulting...reasonably priced and so far no issues....

For NAV Consulting, beside calculating NAV, what services they provide for managed account?

1. Do they calculate management and incentive fee for managed accounts?
2. Do they send out monthly statement for managed accounts?
3. Do they send out invoice to FCM for managed accounts?
4. What is the cost per managed account per month?

Thanks.
 
Quote from dabao91:

I used to use these guys www.Futuresaccounting.com
They are cheap but not very reliable.
When I started doing my offshore fund I looked at Arthur Bell, very well known/reliable and very expensive.
Currently for my Managed accounts I use NAV Consulting...reasonably priced and so far no issues....

For NAV Consulting, beside calculating NAV, what services they provide for managed account?

1. Do they calculate management and incentive fee for managed accounts?
2. Do they send out monthly statement for managed accounts?
3. Do they send out invoice to FCM for managed accounts?
4. What is the cost per managed account per month?

Thanks.
More...

1) yes
2) to you not directly to the clients; yes
3) as 2
4) Thats down to you and them but I would suggest between $60 & $100 per mth end statement depending upon your strategy and the workload involved...plus I think there was a 1 time account set up fee of approx $600

Peace and Profit
 

Gain divided by drawdowns should be in excess of an 8:1 ratio.


What does above statement mean? Does it mean if the annual gain is 16% the maximum annual drawdown can not be more than 16/8 =2%?

Please advise. Thanks.
 

Once you have various managed accounts, you should be able to bunch orders and transmit one order to each broker for all accounts with that broker. I would recommend finding one broker and sending business his way unless you plan on managing some serious coin, then you should form a CPO.


I am not sure I understand "bunch orders". Is it similar to "block order" & "give-up" concept? Or it is some thing else? What are the differences between "bunch orders" & "block order" & "give-up" concept? Thanks.
 

8. Accounting Service - Accounting Software, or Outsourcing. Is it better to have accounting software or pay the money to oustource the accounting work. The last thing I need is to be audited and not have the correct information.


What is the best accounting & administration software for emerging CTA?

What is the bast web-based accounting & administration firm for emerging CTA?

Can any one share your experiences?

Thanks.
 
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